Magna Carta and the rule of law.

After returning from the London Sessions of the ABA in June, which commemorated and celebrated the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta, I have become a bit confused about what nation that we had returned to.

I spent a week of studying Magna Carta in London and listening to internationally renowned speakers hail the virtues of the rule of law and the need to incorporate the rule of law into the value systems of struggling nations and nations with intolerant and undemocratic governments and judicial systems. I now hear, in my own nation, statements from those who have held high office and who desire to hold even higher office that our nation is being subjected to the "false god of judicial supremacy."

Indeed, while our system of the rule of law is being heralded internationally as a model, "leaders" in our own nation are suggesting, maybe even urging, that the rule of law be trampled upon and ignored in the United States. There are some who are stating that rulings of the highest court in the land need not be honored and may be defied--that the rule of law may be ignored.

The rule of law does not guarantee a happy result to all. It does guarantee a fair decisionmaking process with judicial norms applied to each case. When proposals from those running for high national office are made to make the U. S. Supreme Court (and, I suppose, the entire federal judiciary) subject to popular elections, votes on retention periodically, or other political "remedies," we are in danger. We are in danger of becoming a nation such as those who need the rule of law now to allow minorities to be represented in government, to express the views of...